A Good Place To Start
by Dess Frait
Summary: So first there's a car crash. Then there's a road trip. With two twins looking for their father everything will get in their way. Be it incest, drug dealers, true love, or bitches, this trip will be one for the scrap books.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey! So I decided to start a new story that is completely not bloody or gory at all (so far). This is a work-in-progress and I am going to need a shit-load of support from you people because I always tend to be impatient with my stories and if I don't see an interest I'm probably going to stop writing. **

**If you are reading this beware of cursing, sex, incest, death, and sarcasm. There is a reason this is rated M and if any of this offends you then DON'T READ IT. **

**Don't be afraid to review because I love people commenting on my stories. Speaking of which you should all read my other story **_**Life No Longer Living**_**. And then review. **

**Thanks! Enjoy your reading.**

**Dess**

A good place to start would probably be the plot. It could be a lot of things depending on how you want to read it. There's "Fate vs. Free Will", "My Life is My Own", "How to Find Yourself", among many, many others that I am sure you could come up with. My story begins three months ago with me staring up at the ceiling of my bedroom at home – then ends with me half way across the country washing dishes in a diner standing next to my sister.

Some background information probably wouldn't hurt, and it will make the situations around this event a whole lot clearer. My name is Bella and I'm seventeen years old and a senior in high school. I had a seven year old brother named Jacob and a twin sister named Alice. My mother was a lawyer, and she was basically the best mother that had ever walked this planet. My father was nonexistent (until the events of this story played out), and no one wondered or cared about him. We lived in the middle of Dickshooter, Idaho, where nothing ever happens except the corny, worn-out jokes that everyone continues to make about this place's name.

The four of us rented a small house with four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen that was also the dining room and a living room the size of my closet. It was kind of cramped, but it fit us and we liked it. We each got our own room, but the walls were so thin that if someone sneezed on one side of the house you could hear a person whisper "Ga-Bless-You" from the other. The whole place was made of wood, smelled like wood, and felt like wood. We had a wood stove for when it got cold and a fan with some string hanging off it for when it got hot.

The morning that started everything was (as all the stories say) a morning like any other. I got up, got dressed, got ready for school, shouted 'good morning' to everyone that was awake, and walked the fifteen steps into my sister's room to dump some cold water on her head. Once I ran down the hall to avoid the projectiles being chucked at me, my mother was at the table with the best smelling pancakes ever created in the history of life.

"Morning Sweetheart," she said, "How'd you sleep?"

"Fine," I said, "Got any mail?"

"Yeah, it's right on the table… Do you know where your brother's lunchbox is?"

"Nope, sorry."

"It's okay. Your breakfast is on the table… Don't you have that final today?"

"What final?" I walked my way over to the chairs that surrounded our table. Well, stumbled would probably be a more appropriate term. Jacob had left his plastic toys all over the floor and I kept tripping over them. Finally, I made it to the table and caught myself from falling by grabbing onto the back of a chair.

"You know… that one… what was it? Math? Something like that."

"No, I'm done with my finals. I finished them all yesterday; Alice still has some to do though."

"Oh? Alright. Well, Ally, Good Morning, nice of you to join the land of the living."

"Mmmmmrrg." Was all that came back as a response. My mother continued talking to the zombie in the kitchen as I sat down and began stuffing my face with food.

Eventually we got everyone organized enough to leave the house. We only had one car so we all squished in together to get wherever we needed to go. Jacob's school started before mine, but we passed the high school first so he always ended up a bit late. "Bye Mom, Bye Jacob." Alice and I chorused as we exited the car. She hooked her arm through mine and we went to our first period class.

The way every day went was the same. First gym, then English, math, and science. After lunch we had history and one free that we usually spent at the library ("we" being Alice and I, we had all of the same classes). Even though most of the finals were finished the teachers were required to keep us in class for some reason, so no one was really doing anything. If I recall correctly we actually watched one and a quarter movies for the time we were there. We only made it to partway through science before we were called into the principal's office on the speaker system.

Alice and I walked to the office slowly, hand in hand, as always. We got to the office we took seats on those uncomfortable plastic chairs that every office has until they told us it was our turn.

"What do you think we're here about?" said Alice.

"No idea. I think we're about to find out though."

I could hear soft footsteps coming from to our left and an equally soft voice speak a second later, "You two may go in to see Principal Dover now."

We got up and made our way over to the doorway of the mini-freezer that was known as the principal's office. The room was always cold; hence the nickname "freezer", the "mini" came from how the room was two feet by three feet. There was a carpet that muffled every step we took and it felt soft and thick. There were two kindergarten-sized chairs in front of the night-table that was the desk. Behind the desk, the principle, a man with a rough old voice, cleared his throat.

The principal's name was Benjamin Dover, a high school drop-out himself, I believe. He had been the head-man for about twenty years and had been alive for three hundred years more than that. Everyone thought the guy was insane. Sometimes he walked through the hallways of the school yelling at random kids about prophecies and vampires. Apparently he thought he could see the future, but of course I never got a chance to witness any of these episodes. I only got to hear about them through the normal game of telephone that all gossip goes through.

"Please, take a seat," he said, "I have some news for you that might be quite a shock." Alice and I sat down quietly, neither of us saying a word in response to his statement. "About five minutes ago I got a call from the police saying that your mother got into a car crash with a drunk driver."

The first thought that popped into my head, obviously, was '_Who drinks at 11:30 in the morning?' _The second was slightly more panicked. "What? What do you mean? Is she alright? What – What happened? No, you have to be wrong, she was at work. She's always at work now. You're wrong, you have to be, I mean-"

Principal Ben cut off my rambling, "I'm sorry, but it's true, this did happen. Which leads me to my second piece of news… she wasn't the only one in the car."

Alice spoke before I could, "What do you mean? Was she with a co-worker?"

"No. The reason that she was out of work at this hour in the first place was because the elementary school called about your brother. He had not been feeling well so they called for her to pick him up. They were probably on their way home when-"

"No." I said, "No, that's impossible. My brother was not in that car. How do you even know who it was? No, I-I-I- no. It's-It's just not…"

"Bella, calm down," Alice patted my arm, "Let's hear what happened first. Are they alright? Do you know?" Even with her calm demeanor I could detect the slight tremor hidden in her voice. She was just as scared as I was.

The Principal hesitated for a moment, "Well, she was hit from the side with a car that was going seventy-five miles per hour… there was never… I mean to say…" He stopped and was quiet for another minute. Alice and I followed his lead and did not make a sound. He sighed and then decided to just say it as bluntly as possible, "The car hit your mom's and killed her instantly. Your brother was in the back on the other side of the car, but he was hit with a large piece of metal and bled out right as the paramedics showed up. I'm sorry."

Alice and I just sat there. I mean, what are you supposed to say to that? 'Thanks, I'll just go back to class now that you have just informed me that I am an orphan.' Yeah, I don't think so.

We were silent for an immeasurable amount of time. No one moved or made a sound. It was actually quite like one of those movies where everyone pauses for about an hour trying to figure out what just happened. See, as much as it scared me that what Ben Dover said might be true, I didn't really believe it. It was just… impossible. It couldn't happen. So I had very little of a reaction right then.

Alice, on the other hand, is very down-to-Earth, she is the kind of person who understands everything the second you say it. Later she told me she was trying to figure out what would happen to us next, because she couldn't bear the thought of her brother and mother lying, dead, in a morgue somewhere with their chests cut open and their organs still and useless.

A couple of times I opened my mouth like I was about to say something, but for the life of me I couldn't think of one word. I'm pretty sure my brain shut off or something, because the next few hours passed and I could not remember a single thing about them. I don't remember walking out of the building, getting into a cop car, getting to the police office… none of it. Alice relayed it all to me later that night when we slept in our own beds.

Because we turned eighteen in a week no one bothered with the business of a foster home or anything. The next day we had a scheduled meeting with a lawyer so he could give us all information and stuff then run off to his next client.

That first night I distinctly remember the silence of the house, when there usually was so much noise. It never occurred to me how much the noise of my family meant to me until right at that moment. That was the moment when I realized that I would never be able to see my mother again. Not my mother, not my brother. No more hugs or laughs or playing… hell I would have even went for tripping over that kid's toys if it meant he would still have been with me.

I didn't sleep the entire night. I sobbed so hard I actually puked. That had never happened before, but I suppose the whole situation was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I honestly hope that no one ever experiences their mother dying twice.

Alice and I got up in the morning and neither of us said one word to the other. She had fared just as well as I had that night and neither of us was going to admit it. We walked to the kitchen and stayed mute. When we walked in toys still littered the floor and it took most all of my will power to not start bawling; which didn't work because I started crying anyway.

Alice ignored my tears other than a soft pat on the back. I wish I could say that we had that creepy twin-connection thing that let us comfort each other without saying a word, but that would be a lie. We were both just really bad at expressing our emotions and taking comfort from others.

I grabbed the cereal box from the top of the fridge, where it always was, and put it on the table. Neither of us ate, of course, but it felt necessary to have it there for some reason. We were so absorbed in our own minds that when a knock came from the door I jumped so high that I fell out of my chair. Had it been any other day I would have laughed until my gut hurt more than my butt, but I couldn't even bring myself to crack a smile.

Alice got up and went over to answer the door and I was able to hear the sharp tone of a woman speaking as I got up. "Hello, are you the… Swans?"

"Yes," replied Alice, "How may I help you?"

"We had an appointment scheduled for today. I am Angela Webber, your lawyer."

"Oh, well, come in, please. Uhm, would, I mean, could we… uh… do this in the, uh, kitchen?"

"Yes, that would be fine." I listened to the clicking of Ms. Webber's heals on the wood floor. They sounded painful.

"Hello." I said when they walked through the door. I stood up and put my hand out for her to shake, "I'm Bella."

"Nice to meet you, though I am sorry for your loss."

"Thank you, would you like something to eat or drink?"

"No, thank you. We have business to attend to… do you mind if I sit?"

"Not at all." Ms. Webber and Alice took their seats and the boring, long discussion began. I won't go into details because I got bored while I was there, I couldn't imagine what torture it would be it I retold everything word by word. Basically, we sorted out life insurance (Alice and I had $100,000 to our names because of that), what our mother left us in her will (the car, which was wrecked, and all of her money, which was another $100,000), as well as the fact we were legally adults soon so we didn't have to move into a home or anything.

"Now, I know that your father has never been in the picture, but if you would like to track him down I do have a name."

"Wait, what?" I had never heard my mother ever mention our father, and to be honest, we never asked. But if there had been some information that she could have told us about him that had been available, but then just hid it… that was worse than cruel.

"On your birth certificates, there is the name of you father. Would you like to know what it is?"

I nodded my head and Alice did the same.

"His name is Charlie Hugh Jass, born and raised in Ding Dong, Texas. I do not know his current whereabouts, but I could find out if you needed. Would you like me to?"

"Yes, please." I answered quickly, before Alice could say anything. Ms. Webber nodded and packed up her things. We all thanked each other and said goodbye an obscene number of times when Angela finally left and we were alone again.

School was over until graduation in two days and we had two funerals to attend tomorrow. Lucky for us our mother's firm was kind enough to sort out everything to do with the funerals, one less thing for us to worry about.

Without anything to occupy our time, Alice and I were at a complete loss as to what to do. We could cry, sure, but we had done a lot of that already and had the headaches to prove it. We finally just turned the TV on and watched sitcoms until our eyes could not stay open any more.

The next day was a blur of funeral stuff and people. I do not want to go into detail and there is no reason to. It was sad, it was depressing, and it was never-ending. That is all you need to know. Alice and I went home with a ton of flowers and enough food to feed all of those African children that everyone pities so much. They could certainly have it too, as I don't think either of us had even thought about eating for around two days or so.

The next day was more hectic and only slightly less dismal. Graduation was supposed to be happy, but with no one there to celebrate it with it was definitely no uplifting occasion. We threw our hats, got our diplomas, and I think someone gave some sort of a speech about our mom, but I wasn't really paying attention so I can't be sure.

The day after graduation Alice and I sat on the couch staring at nothing. After we'd been doing that for about an hour I decided to break the silence.

"So what now?"

"I don't know."

"We can't go to college this year anyway. We were planning on helping out so we could buy a real house. So, we can look at colleges for next year, right?"

"Yeah."

"Do you know where you want to go? Or what you want to do?"

"No."

I sighed. We were wonderful conversationalists, no? We had been silent for another ten minutes before the phone rang. I jumped up to answer it, dying to do anything.

"Hello?"

"Hi, this is Angela Webber, your lawyer. We spoke earlier this week."

"Yes, I remember." '_Why would she be calling? Is there something we forgot to go over?_' With everything going on I had completely forgotten about the missing person she was looking up.

"Well, I found your father. Charlie Hugh Jass moved out of Texas and now lives in Happyland, Connecticut."

"Thank you."

"Not a problem. Have a nice day."

"You too."

I hung up and stared at Alice. "Guess what?"

"I would rather not."

"Ms. Webber found Charlie."

"Are you talking about some TV show?"

"No. I'm talking about our lawyer finding our dad."

"What? Really? Well… Where?"

"Happyland."

"You're kidding."

"Nope."

"Oh my god."

"Yeah. Happyland, Connecticut."

"You think it's true?"

"What?"

"The happiness of that land."

"Probably not."

"You're right."

"We should find him."

"What?"

"We should. We have nothing to do here, and we have a year. We can do a cross country road trip to find our dad."

"Are you high?"

"No. I'm being serious. Don't you want to meet him?"

"Not really. "

"Why?"

"Because he either left us or didn't want us and we have gotten along just fine without him."

"That was when we had a mother."

"What if he doesn't want anything to do with us? What are we going to do then?"

"Hit him over the head with a hammer and come back here."

"No."

"Oh, come on. We never do anything. We won't be doing anything here. We should go. We have talked about doing a road trip from when we were old enough to figure out that cars could travel farther distances than from here to town square."

Alice huffed at me. "And what are we supposed to do about this place?"

"Nothing. We leave it the way it is and the credit card will pay all the bills. We've got to get out of here or we're both going to lose our minds and you know it."

"Fine. But how are we going to do this? We don't even have a car."

"Well, let's go and get one."

"This is ridiculous."

"Absolutely."

We walked the three miles to the one car dealership in town. We looked around until we found the one car that both of us liked. It was used and kind of battered, but we loved it. It was an old red truck with an open bed in the back and a bench seat. The guy selling it said it would run well for at least another five years. I'm pretty sure you could have hit that thing with a tank and it would have gotten up and hit back.

We bought the car and headed home in it. We packed our things that night and went to sleep at around three in the morning. When we woke up we threw out all of the perishables and made sure to leave it where the garbage people would pick it up. We locked all the windows and doors and put our stuff in the back of the truck.

We head out on the road, no map, no real destination other than Happyland. We were going to let the stars guide the way for this adventure, and we were going to have some damn fun doing it.

**Whoo. That is a packed first chapter. Tell me what you think! I am going to try to update this at least once a week and if I don't feel free to yell your ass off at me. I am already working on the next few chapters so that shouldn't be a problem. **

**REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!**

**Thanks for reading,**

**Dess. **


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey, I am so sorry about not posting. Everything has been really hectic with my internship and school starting soon, and my job, and then all the drama that is on top of that. I am going to try to be better about posting. To make up for not posting, this chapter is pretty long.**

**Anyway, I decided that the whole road trip and every experience they're going to have is way too much for me to write without it getting boring. So what I'm going to do is finish this with vague references to where they are and one or two attractions and then when I'm done I'm going to make a bunch of outtakes about the places that they've visited.**

**I want to thank you SO MUCH to the first 3 people who said anything about my stories (one for each) and I want to say a special thank you to ggb-luma for being the first and ONLY person to comment on this story. To answer your question YES: all of the cities and towns mentioned in this story are REAL PLACES in the United States. **

**Hope you like the 2****nd**** chapter,**

**Enjoy your reading,**

**Dess.**

Whenever people imagine road trips they picture adventure and life-changing moments that make you want to laugh and cry and call Hallmark for a new card idea. No one ever imagines the mind numbing boredom of being stuck in a car for hours upon hours at a time with nothing to do and only one person to talk to.

"I'm bored." I said to Alice, staring out the window.

"You mentioned that once or twice before." She said.

"Where are we?"

"How should I know?"

"You're the one driving."

"Therefore, you should be the one with the map."

"That's okay, I'm good."

"Ugh. Do you mind finding a radio station that plays something other than static or politics?"

"If they had one, believe me, I would find it."

"Put a CD or something in then."

"There's no CD player."

"What kind of a car doesn't have a CD player?"

"This one."

"This was a bad idea."

"You mentioned that once or twice."

"Three times every hour, actually – and that's because it's true."

"You counted how many times you said that?"

"I am in the car with a five year old."

"Hey! I take offence. Five and three quarters."

Alice rolled her eyes at me and stopped talking. I continued to stare out the window at the beauty-less landscape before us. It was really just rocks and mountains, and as nice as those tend to be, they get to be quite boring when you stare at the same thing for over sixteen hours a day.

"How long have we been driving?" I asked.

Alice sighed and glanced at her watch – the clock in the truck was only right twice a day. "About five hours."

"That's it?"

"Yup."

"I'm bored."

"I'm Alice. Nice to meet you."

"You're obnoxious."

"No, I'm Alice."

"Entertain me."

"No."

"You're no fun."

"Why, thank you. You're so good at flattery."

"Want to play a game?"

"No."

"I spy with my little eye – "

"You have got to be kidding me."

"I most certainly am not."

"What about if we stop at that diner over there? Will you be happy?"

"Define happy."

"Feeling or showing pleasure, contentment or joy. Feeling satisfied that something is right or has been done right – "

"Alright, alright. I get it. Yeah, sure. Let's go to the diner. Hey, is there a Walmart nearby?"

"I have no idea, why? You need to pick up some household supplies?"

"No… I have always wanted to get kicked out of Walmart and figured this would be a perfect time to try."

"I am not bailing you out of jail."

"That's right, because you will be right there next to me."

"Not a chance in – "

"Hey! Watch where you're going, I understand that you're upset with me, but there's no reason to run over old people."

"I was not going to run them over."

"You sure about that?"

"Yes."

"But you were – "

"Drop it. Now."

"Now? Not – "

"If you don't want me to leave you here I suggest you shut up."

"Ooh. That sounds like a threat."

"It is. Now get out. You were the one who wanted to stop here anyway."

"No. You said I wanted to stop here."

"Same thing."

"How is that the same thing?"

"Just get out of the damn car."

"Fine."

We got out of the truck and walked up into the old diner. It was one of those old places that had ugly neon colors fighting with each other and no one could ever imagine it passing a health inspection. We went in and took a seat on one of the greasy booths near the bar. We sat there for about ten minutes before Alice lost her patience and started looking around.

"Where is the damned waiter? If they don't get here son I'm going to go to the chef myself." She said.

"No you won't. The last time you did that you got us kicked out of Wendy's. And I really liked their smoothies."

"Oh, puh. They had horrible service. And I'm serious. I want a waiter. Waiter! Waiter! WAITER!"

"Alice, shut up! No one wants to hear you scream –"

"Excuse me," said a blonde in an apron, "I heard you shrieking for a waitress. I'm sorry if we have customers other than you, but you need to chill the fuck out."

"I don't care. We are customers too –" I interrupted Alice.

"I'm sorry," I paused as I looked for her nametag, "Rosalie. My sister meant to say that she understands, but we've been waiting here for a while. Do you think you could take our orders?"

Alice glared at me for stopping her rant. I just motioned for her to order. The blonde just sighed at us impatiently.

"Whatever. What do you want?"

"I want a better fucking attitude. Who the hell do you think you – "

"Alice!" I yelled, "Just order your food!"

"Fine." She sniffed, "I'll have a vegetarian omelet with no onions but extra peppers. I also want cheddar cheese and three eggs. But make sure not to overcook it, because then it will be burnt and I won't eat it. Oh, and I don't want olives, I'm allergic to them. Do you have all that? I want a vegetarian omelet with three eggs and no onions but lots of peppers and no olives and cheddar cheese. I also want a bagel but not toasted, and put some butter on the side – but it _has_ to be fat free butter. I can't eat it any other way. And I want orange juice with some pulp, but not too much. Do you have that? Do you have everything? Because if you get it wrong I'll send it back and I won't eat it. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, sure, whatever." The blonde said. She turned to me, "What do you want?"

"I'll just have an egg and cheese sandwich with French fries."

"Oh!" said Alice, "I want those too. No, not French fries. _Home_ fries. I love home fries. But they have to be cooked just right, and don't cook them with pepper because diners always add too much pepper."

"Yeah. Fine. Now if you wouldn't mind to keep your voice the fuck down so the rest of our customers don't hear your racket."

"Why you little –"

"Alice, don't bother." I said, "she already walked away anyway."

"I hate waitresses like her! They're so snooty and snobby and rude. I want to take my foot and kick it so far up her –"

"Alice! There is a five year old child _right there_."

"So? They have to learn how the world works. This is how it works. With people shoving other people's feet up their –"

"Please don't. Just please don't. Besides, you can hate her as much as you want, but did you really have to make her spit in our food?"

"She's not going to spit in our food."

"Would you care to make a bet on that?"

"Hmph."

Alice sulked because she knew she was beat. She didn't talk after that. The blonde bitch brought our food and threw it on the table, making some of Alice's home fries fall onto her pants. Alice's face turned red and I knew that this was not going to end well.

"You bitch! These are new pants! They're ruined now and it's your fucking fault!"

"Oops," said the blonde, smirking, "Guess you'll just have to go to Walmart and get another pair."

"You –you –you-" Alice was so pissed off she was sputtering and her face turned an odd shade of purple.

"Okay," I said, "I think it's time to leave."

I grabbed Alice by the arm and dragged her toward the door. But not before she shouted out, "Fuck you bitch! I hope you get herpes you fucking slut!"

I dragged her outside and slapped her upside the head.

"What was that for?" she yelled.

"For cursing out our waitress in front of an entire diner."

"She deserved it."

"That is not the point."

We stood glaring for another three minutes and fourteen seconds. I counted. Alice sighed.

"Fine." She mumbled, "I may have over reacted a little bit." I raised an eyebrow. "Or a lot."

I shook my head at her, "Let's just get out of here. I didn't even get to eat my sandwich."

As we got into the truck we heard a bunch of yelling by the door. The blonde bitch was being led out of the diner by a fat guy in slacks and a dirty white undershirt. She was screaming at her and spit was flying everywhere. She was screaming right back at him, took her apron from around her waist and threw it at his face. The fat guy kept on screaming and started waving his fist as she started stomping down the road in her six-inch red stilettos.

Alice and I looked at each other then burst out laughing.

"Guess she got hers." Said Alice.

"Maybe we should pick her up?" I said. It looked really painful to be walking in those shoes and it didn't appear as though she had a ride coming along or anything.

"No. She deserves it. And I hope her heal brakes." Alice started the car and backed out of the parking lot. She sped down the road past the blonde, blowing a load of dust on her in the process.

We had been driving for about another hour before we came upon a motorcycle on the side of the road with smoke pouring out of it. There was a guy in a helmet standing next to it in a leather jacket with his hands on his hips, just staring at the broken vehicle before him.

"Pull over the car Alice. He looks like he could use some help."

"What? No. Haven't you seen those cop shows and movies? You don't pull over for random people you don't know. He could be a serial killer, or a rapist, or something. I don't know about you, but I want to keep my virtue."

"Who are you kidding, Alice. You lost your virtue to Albert Shitman in the ninth grade. Pull over the car."

"But he was awful. It didn't even last a full minute. Three pumps and done."

"I don't really want to know. I told you that guy was pathetic though. Now come on, pull over. We haven't seen anyone else on this road for at least forty minutes; he might not get any help for who knows how long."

"Fine. But if he turns out to be a rapist I'm tripping you so he can have you."

"Thanks, I love you too."

We pulled over to the side of the road and got out of the cab. We walked over to the guy and I looked him over. He was tall blonde and lean. Very muscular but had more of a swimmer's body than a weightlifter's. He had bright blue eyes and a permanent smirk parked on his lips. In other words, he was drop dead fuckable.

"Hello ladies," he said with a southern twang, "What can I do you for?"

"You can do me for free." Said Alice. I stared wide-eyes at her. A second later she realized what she said and flushed the color of our truck. Lucky for her the cowboy just laughed and stuck out his hand.

"Name's Jasper Whitlock, Ma'am."

"That's a nice name." Alice sighed. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately.

I shook my head, it appeared as though I would have to do the introduction because Alice had lost all of her faculties.

"Hi, my name's Bella and this dope is Alice. I'm sorry. She has brain damage. We came over to see if you needed any help with your bike."

Alice glared at me, but Jasper just smiled. "Thank you. I appreciate it. I actually do need help, I don't have a cell phone and my bike broke down. I'm no mechanic so I don't know how to fix it."

"That's fine. We can give you a lift." Said Alice, "And, by the way, I do not have brain damage. That is just my lovely sister trying to make a joke. And it was _oh so funny_."

"Really? Thanks ladies. If you don't mind I'll just put my bike in the back of your truck so I don't have to leave it behind."

"Oh, of course that's fine." Said Alice.

While Jasper went over to his bike I went over to Alice and started whispering to her. "Ali, I don't know if this is such a good idea. I mean, what if he is a rapist – like you were saying before? We don't know him…"

"But, Bella, look at him. He's so hot. I need a good lay."

"Alice!"

"What? Bella, I have needs, and I am sure that he can meet them."

"I don't even know what to say to that."

"Say yes. It will be fine. Now come on, he's waiting."

Alice skipped happily over to Jasper and started drooling over his bike that was not in the bed of our truck. I trailed behind and got into the cab of the truck, this time I took the driver's seat. Alice sat in the middle of the bench seat and Jasper on the end that I had been sitting in before.

We started on the road and for the longest time I listened to Alice and Jasper blabber at each other. They were playing some game with twenty questions, although they passed question twenty about forty minutes prior.

After another twenty minutes I saw a big black SUV in the rearview mirror. I thought that it was a bit strange after seeing no cars for near to three hours, but didn't think that it was that big of a deal. We were coming up to a crossroads and as I was about to continue going straight another giant car came out of nowhere and smashed into the side of the truck, hitting the passenger side of the car.

The car spun and flipped, my ribs protested the seatbelt digging into them and my head spun with the car. Everything was so loud, it was like the entire world decided to yell scream and explode all at one. I worried about Alice and Jasper, and wondered what the fuck was going on, but my thoughts couldn't really stay concentrated on one thing for too long – my body hurt too much.

After what felt like forever the car stopped spinning. I was upside down and I turned my head to see Alice unconscious with red dripping from her hair. I couldn't clearly see Jasper, but I saw his shadow twisted in an awkward position in the seat.

The last thing I saw before everything went black was the thick silhouette of a big man with a big gun.

_Oh shit._ I thought. _What the fuck have we gotten ourselves into?_

**Well, what do you think? I know the beginning was kind of slow, but I wanted everyone to meet Rosalie. And no, this is not the last you will be seeing of her.**

**What do you think happened? Who do you think is the big man with the big gun? Do you think he has anything to do with Jasper? Well I'm not telling you yet, so you might as well send your guesses to me. **

**I hope you enjoyed your reading and don't forget to REVIEW, REVIEW, REVIEW!**

**I will not post the next chapter until I have at least one more review from this story, which is not setting the bar very high – so that should be easily completed. **

**Until next time,**

**Enjoy your reading,**

**Dess.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Yeah… So I haven't posted for a while and I know that my apologies aren't going to mean shit to you so I'm not even going to go there. I am inconsistent with my postings and that's just the way the world works. **

**I re-read this and realized that I am not putting disclaimers in – which I need to do. Because I don't want to deal with fixing all the other chapters I'm just going to start putting them on from here and if I forget please remind me. **

**So… I own nothing. The plot is mine, and the fucking ridiculous names, but that's about it.**

**Enjoy your reading,**

**Dess.**

**Recap:**

_After what felt like forever the car stopped spinning. I was upside down and I turned my head to see Alice unconscious with red dripping from her hair. I couldn't clearly see Jasper, but I saw his shadow twisted in an awkward position in the seat. _

_The last thing I saw before everything went black was the thick silhouette of a big man with a big gun. _

_Oh shit. I thought. What the fuck have we gotten ourselves into?_

I groaned as I came back to consciousness. My head pounded like a jackhammer decided to take do construction in my brain. My mouth tasted fuzzy and even with my eyes closed the light burned my irises.

Whenever I read stories they always talk about down-time, right before people wake up, when they can't remember what's happened to them or where they are. That has never happened to me in my life. There are a few times I certainly wish it could have, but I was never that lucky.

I remember everything about what happened before I was knocked out, the crash, Jasper, Alice's head dripping blood – but I am definitely not still in the wrecked car, not unless it grew a bed that felt like a fucking amazingly soft cloud.

I paused for a second to see if I could hear anything to get a clue as to where I was, but it is hard to hear anything over your own mental drum-circle. I internally shrugged and thought, _Fuck it, if there's someone there who's going to fuck with me might as well get it over with now. _

I opened my eyes and squeezed them shut almost immediately after. "MOTHER FUCKER! That shit hurts. Can anyone turn the god-damn lights down?"

The lights clicked off instantly and it was the dim light of muddy afternoon. I tried opening my eyes again and blinked a few times so everything would focus. "Thanks," I mumbled. Well, I guess someone was here.

"Not a problem, Ma'am." Said a gruff voice – kind of on the verge of an eighty-year-old smoker voice, but it was sexier than that.

I sat up on my elbows and turned my head in the voice's direction without really seeing anything. "Am I allowed to ask who you are, or would you have to kill me?"

The man laughed and threw his head back, obviously enjoying my amazingly funny wit. He was a big fucker, could probably lift a truck if he had a mind to. He had long dirty blonde hair and scruff on his chin saying that he hadn't shaved for a few days. He was wearing one of those black tight fitting v-neck t-shirts, and his muscles were absolutely bursting out of it. He wore dark wash jeans with rips on the knees and his wallet sticking slightly out of his pocket. He was sitting in an old wooden chair that his frame absolutely swallowed and it shook with every bellow that escaped his mouth. It's a wonder the thing was still standing with all the pressure it was under.

As the guy was still laughing I took the time to notice my injuries. There didn't seem to be anything serious, but my body had a nice fucking ache to it. Like when you work out at the gym for too long after a few months of complete laziness – yeah, every muscle hurt like that.

"Naah, little Lady," said the guy, drawing my attention to his again, "I'm not gonna kill you. Name's James. Sorry about the deal with the car crash, we just needed the blonde fellah." The guy smirked at me, other than looking completely fuckable – he was a creepy asshole.

"I knew that bastard was trouble." I mumbled.

"What was that?" James asked.

"Nothing, nothing. Where is my sister? Is she alright?"

"You mean the elf? Yeah, she's good. She woke up about a half hour ago and went all ape-shit over our clothes."

"Yeah… Sounds like Alice."

"You want some water? You sound a bit parched."

"Yeah, that'd be great." James got up and walked over to a night table that I didn't notice before. It looked like I was in a kind of guest room. Other than the night table there was the bed I was on, a dresser and big window with a curtain over it. It was then that I noticed the big-ass gun lying next to the chair. I cleared my throat and looked back at James, "Uhm, what was it that you needed Jasper for, anyhow?"

He looked over at me and picked up the water that was on the table. "He's a tricky fucker. And my brother. We play this game sometimes… Hard to explain."

I just looked at him strange, but let it go. Who the fuck plays games with fucking car crashes?

"Here ya' go." He handed me the water.

"Thanks," I downed the thing in basically one gulp. I was thirstier than I thought. The water cleared the rest of my head that was still foggy and made the hammering go down a bit. My mouth was also less fuzzy, so I was all-around a better person.

"So have you met Jasper before?" Asked James.

"No. We just picked him up on the side of the road. Saw he was having some car troubles."

He lifted an eyebrow at that. "You that's dangerous, right? He could have taken advantage of two pretty girls like you and your sister."

"Yeah… Didn't think that far ahead." Better to lie than to explain how fucking stupid we were and just ignoring common logic. After it being silent for a few moments I spoke again, "Uh. Do you think I could go down and see my sister now?"

James looked at me for a moment. "Sorry, little Lady, you shouldn't get up yet. You were just in a nasty car crash. Besides, your sister's… busy at the moment."

I looked at him, bewildered, "Busy? We don't even know you people and she was also just in a car crash." I started to get a bit panicked, "Where is she? What'd you do to her?"

"Calm down, she's fine. Just lay back and get some rest."

"No! Who the fuck are you? Where the fuck is my sister?" I got up really quickly, ignoring the extreme pain in all my limbs and froze when I looked at James. He was pointing his big ass gun straight at my chest.

"Now listen, little Lady, you are going to sit your ass back down on that bed and lie down. You wouldn't want to make me do something drastic, now would you?" He continued to stare at me with dark eyes that would make a zombie scream and want to hide under the covers. "Do you understand?"

I nodded.

"Good. Now lie back down."

I did.

"There's a good girl. I didn't want to have to do this, but if you're not going to behave then I'm going to have to-"

There was a loud blast that interrupted James, coming from right outside the door. We both turned toward the sound in time to see Jasper burst through the wall – a good yard away from the doorway – and shaking his head to get sheetrock out of his hair while simultaneously pointing a rifle at James.

"James, nice to see you again." Said Jasper, "Now if you don't mind, I'll be takin' the 'little Lady' and we'll be on our way."

James smiled and pointed his gun at Jasper, "I don't think so, she's mine."

Jasper didn't even hesitate, he just shot the rifle and turned to look at me when I screamed bloody-fucking-murder. He dropped the gun and grabbed my arm, pulling me off the bed and dragging me through the hole he made in the wall. I couldn't find my footing, and in good circumstances I was generally a clumsy person, so Jasper was basically dragging me with him around what appeared to be a pretty nice house.

"What the fuck, Jasper?" I screamed, my arm burning in protest to Jasper's forceful grip.

He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, but continued to run in random directions, following the narrow hallways of what I figured was James' home. "Ask me questions later, right now we need to get out."

I tried to nod, but he didn't even notice as we approached what looked like the back door and Jasper turned to the left. "Where are you going?" I said, "the exit is right there."

"No, James is a smart fellah. He's booby-trapped every damn door in this house."

"Then how are we getting out? And what about Alice?"

"Don' worry 'bout Alice. She's safe." He stopped in front of a large window that was on the side of the house. "And as for the exit…"

I looked up at him wide-eyed. This was at least five feet off the ground – and it wasn't one of the windows that you could open. He looked at me with a level stare and raised his arms as though to pick me up.

"Ready, Darlin'?"

I took one step back, catching up to what he thought he was going to do. "No. No, no, no, no –"

He picked me up in one large swooping motion, expertly moving me into a fireman's hold. In the next second he back up a step or two, took a running leap and flew through the window, leaving sharp shards of glass everywhere in our wake.

As soon as his feet hit the ground, Jasper took off in a fast sprint, running like his ass was on fire. Because of the way he was holding me, every time he took a step my face bumped into the small of his back, so I held my arms in front of me to brace me. After some amount of time Jasper slowed down and finally stopped. He put me down on my feet and made sure I was steady before letting go completely. He was breathing heavily and his face was flushed, his forehead sweaty and I noticed there was a cut above his eyebrow – probably from the crash.

I was silent a moment more, trying to get my brain to catch up to Jasper's speed, but then the questions started spewing out of my mouth without thought and without filter. "What the fuck just happened? Who was that guy? Is he seriously your brother? Where is Alice? Is she okay? Where is my truck? Who the fuck are you? What are you doing here? What did you do to us? What's going to happen? Where are we? Where's all my stuff? Where'd you get that rifle? Why is James after you? What did you do? What the fuck is going on right now Jasper? Answer me!"

Jasper raised an eyebrow at me. "Well, Darlin', if you'd just give me a second I might be able to answer some of your – "

"Stop feeding me bullshit!" I yelled. Yeah, maybe I was being a bit unreasonable. But I think I have just cause to be unreasonable. Some random guy just pointed a gun at my head. Unreasonable is currently my middle name. "Just tell me where the fuck my sister is!"

"BELLA!" I heard a scream from behind me.

"ALICE!"

I turned around and ran toward the pixy that was sprinting at me.

"Are you okay? What happened? Do you know who that guy was? He didn't hurt you did he? I swear to god I'll kill the bastard if he hurt you! I've never shot a man before, but there's never a better time to start than the present. I need a gun first though. Jasper can give me his gun, and then I can shoot the guy-"

"Alice! Just shut up for a second, yeah? One question at a time. And _breath_. You've heard of that, right? Breathing? In, out, in, out, in…"

"Ha. Ha. You are so fucking funny, Bella. We just got kidnapped by a _madman _ and you are making jokes! What is wrong with you?"

"Excuse me ladies-"

"WHAT?" screamed Alice and me, glaring slightly at Jasper for interrupting our reunion.

He looked at us with wide eyes, kind of scared, "I understand that you two 'ave just been though some pretty rough shit, but we got to get our asses in gear 'fore he follows us o'er here."

"Wait," I said, "How's he going to follow us. You shot him. He is shot. He is dead. He is not following us. We can take our sweet damned time."

"No…" He looked at me like I was about to explode in his face, which I kind of felt like I would, so he wasn't completely out of line, "I shot at 'im, but this is b.b. gun. Not a real gun. Can't you tell the difference?"

I looked at him blankly and blushed. How the fuck was I supposed to know that wasn't a real gun? It's not like I spent a lot of time around the damn things. I'm sorry that I assumed that something that _looked_ like a gun, _sounded_ like a gun,and _shot_ like a gun, wasn't actually a gun. My fucking bad.

"Well that's a relief," said Alice.

I looked at her strange. "Why would it be a relief that the guy who is trying to kill us is not dead? Not even injured, might I add."

"Because," she responded, "I would never sleep with a man who had killed someone. And I really want to sleep with Jasper, so… yeah."

I looked at her like she was insane, and honestly, so did Jasper.

"Thank you for the… complement… ma'am," said Jasper, slowly, "But if any of us want to sleep with anyone ever again, we ought to get the fuck outa here. James ain't gon' be far behind."

Alice and I nodded.

"Hey," I asked, "With no car or other mode of transportation, how are we going to get anywhere?"

Jasper looked at me and slung the not-a-rifle over his shoulder. "We," he said, "are going to walk." With that he turned around and led a path further into the forest.

"You have to be kidding me," I mumbled.

Alice shrugged and turned around to follow him.

Great. My body felt like it had been put through a lawn mower, we had a homicidal maniac after us, a possible homicidal maniac with us, no car, no food, no water, and a long-ass walk through the hell called a forest.

Fuck my life.

**I know this chapter doesn't make up for my extreme lack of posting… but I doubt anything will make up for that. I will try to do better, but I make no promises. **

**Please review! Tell me what you think! If you do I'll be inspired to write something faster!**

**If you have any ideas as to what you think should happen next, then let me know. I know what I want them to do, but there are definitely ideas that you could come up with that I could never think of. So if you really want Bella to get stuck on top of a tree naked, let me know. If you want Alice to get kicked out of the mall of America for urinating in public, let me know. If you have more original ideas, please let me know those too. **

**Enjoy your reading.**

**Until next time,**

**Dess.**


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